Over 300 prisoners have been released as part of efforts to reduce the size of the inmate population in the overcrowded prisons across the country in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels said.
Samuels made this disclosure on Monday during a press conference that was held to address Sunday’s unrest at the Lusignan Prison, where a building was destroyed by fire.
Among the inmates who were released were those who were granted a reduction in bail, those granted remission and those who suffered from chronic illnesses.
“It would amount (to) somewhere in the vicinity of 350 or probably more,” Samuels said.
The majority of those released, according to him, were persons who had nearly completed their sentences, with the time to go ranging from “a matter of days to six weeks.”
Samuels added that the Chancellor of the Judiciary also held a meeting with her team after which a number of other prisoners were also granted a reduction of bail or self-bail. “Some people were unable to post the initial bail they were on and some were released on their own recognisance,” he said.
In early April, Samuels had told Stabroek News that the early release of inmates is part of an effort to address the issue of overcrowding in the facilities.
In late March, weeks after Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 case, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) had called for measures to be taken to reduce overcrowding in prisons given the potential risks to prison staff and inmates posed by COVID-19.
While the GHRA had welcomed the emergency regulations instituted by government to stem the spread of COVID-19, it had voiced its concern that no reference was made to the situation in the country’s prisons, while stating that after health personnel and indigenous people, prisoners and prisons staff are the most exposed category of persons in the country.
In particular, it singled out the Lusignan Prison, saying that it was never intended to be a prison and constituted an ideal incubator of COVID-19. “Hygiene, lack of fresh air and water, the grimy conditions inevitable with so many persons in a concentrated space, all point to the urgent need for reducing the numbers,” it said.
The GHRA had recommended that several measures be considered to reduce overcrowding, including the commutation of sentences for possession of marijuana or other secondary drugs.
It also urged that all remand prisoners for non-violent crimes be reviewed and bail reduced, that all prisoners whose sentences are within three months of completion be released early, and that the sentences of all women prisoners for non-violent offences be commuted.
In response, Samuels had argued that there was no way the measures recommended by the GHRA could deal with the overcrowding in Guyana’s prison facilities.
He had said to remedy the situation would require additional facilities being available immediately or the release of more inmates, many of whom make up the present population and which may pose a threat to society.
Safeguarding against COVID-19
According to Samuels, all measures have been implemented to avoid the spread of the disease within the prison population.
“We have had no suspected case so far, which is something we are working very hard to maintain,” Samuels said, although he acknowledged that space constraints have meant that it has not been an easy task. “But because we understand the challenges or the difficulties, if someone should become infected we are doing our best to make sure that those systems that we put in place that they are working effectively,” he noted.
He said the issue is that as prisoners are released, others are entering.
Samuels noted that admissions are being done at the New Amsterdam and Lusignan prisons and every person who is admitted to the prison is subject to a 14-day quarantine.
“Basically what we have been doing, isolation has been a key thing for those new persons who are admitted. All persons who are admitted to the prison are subjected to 14 days quarantine. During that period, they are examined by the prison’s medical department or prison medical staff and when they are cleared, then they are placed into the general population,” Samuels said.
He further noted that while the prison service cannot “fully control” the movement of prison staff in and out the facilities, stricter measures have been established for them.
“They are entitled to off duty and so forth. They go and come. So those persons, as much as possible, we make sure that we comply with the requirements in terms of sanitising before they entire the prison. We have also introduced at all of our point of entries, the use of the thermometer, so as to make sure that persons are not at a (temperature) level that poses a risk or give an indication of someone who is affected by the coronavirus disease,” Samuels explained.
On April 3rd, de facto Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence had issued an order for emergency measures to be implemented in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In the order, visitation to the prison facilities was restricted.
Samuels further related that the prisoners have been cooperating.
“Had it not been for their cooperation, I think it would have made our work much harder. Even as it relates to the increased frequency of the cleaning of the prison environment [that] is something that the prisoners play a major role in. We provide the materials or the required resources and they deal with the cleaning,” he said.
